A RETIRED
schoolmaster found himself being given the most unusual homework by one
of the world's most famous authors - translating Harry Potter into ancient
Greek.

Former Bedford
Modern School classics master Andrew Wilson was chosen to translate the
multi-million selling author's first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's
Stone.

Mr Wilson got involved
after reading that the book had been translated into Latin and the author
was keen for it to be produced in classical Greek as well.

He said: "I thought
to myself 'I could do that' so I wrote off to the head of children's books
at publisher Bloomsbury, although I didn't really expect anything to come
of it.

"I didn't really
give it any more thought and then six weeks later she called me on my
mobile and asked me to send in a sample chapter - then I was offered a
contract."

Beginning
work in January 2002, Mr Wilson, 64, of Windrush Avenue, Bedford, allowed
himself a year to complete the work.

"At the start a
year seemed like a long time but about six months passed and I realised
I had only done a quarter of it so I set myself a timetable, like students
have for exam revision, to get myself organised."

The task was particularly
difficult as Greek not only has a different alphabet to English but classical
Greek uses various inflection signs which can impart anything up to seven
different meanings to a single vowel.

Mr Wilson said:
"This language has not been used in this form for around 1,500 years and
I am pretty sure this will be the longest text written in it since that
time.

"When I was studying
it we used to translate short paragraphs and that took about three hours
so this was quite a task but I really enjoyed it.

"One thing lots
of people have asked me is why JK Rowling would want it in classical Greek.
It could be that she has so much money she can do anything she likes.

"I know she studied
Latin and French at Exeter and enjoyed Latin so perhaps she wants to bring
the more obscure languages to young people's attention.

"Of course it could
also be about worldwide sales figures and a desire to have it published
in more languages than The Bible and Shakespeare.

"I don't for one
minute expect it to be commercially successful. It will probably be the
least read book in the world."

Mr Wilson is now
working closely with the publisher and expert proof readers to get the
text ready for printing and it is due to be released along with an Irish
Gaelic version in July.

A Bloomsbury spokesman
said: "We decided to do the Greek translation after the success of the
Latin version. We thought it would be quite a fun thing to do and also
useful for students who could read these alongside the English version
as an alternative to some of the more traditional texts they have to work
with."